PROGRAMME

APP WARM UP ACT  – RECORDED SESSIONS

  • Dr. Ana Adi – Agent Provocateur, A story about attention, learning and reflection
  • Catherine Arrow – Demonstrating Value: Research, Measurement and Evaluation, With The Help Of AI
  • Kelly Cutler – Transforming Marketing with Generative AI: A Research-Based Approach
  • Carlos A. Diaz – How we map news stories to real world events
  • Sanchary Pal – The Quality–Complexity Paradox: The State of Integrated Marketing 2025
  • Christofer Solheim – Cui bono?
  • Michael Jahns – Supervised Learning vs Generative AI in Media Evaluation Applications

08:00 – 09:00 – Delegate Registration

09:00 – 09:10 -Delegate Welcome
Johna Burke, AMEC CEO & Raina Lazarova, VP of Insights at Muck Rack & Chair of the AMEC Board of Directors

09:10 – 09:35 – The Future Is Now: Real AI In Action
Ant Cousins, Meltwater

In this session , Ant will share how Meltwater has put AI into practice for PR, comms, and measurement professionals, moving beyond theory to real, reliable results. Key areas he will cover include:
1.Blending Generative AI With Proven Data Science: I’ll explain how Meltwater has combined cutting edge generative models with established data science methods. This approach gives us measurement that is not just innovative, but also consistent, transparent, and robust qualities, essential for serious evaluation.
2. Refocusing The Human Role: Rather then spending time navigating complex user interfaces or crafting endless Boolean queries, professionals can focus on what really matters: Interpreting results and deciding which measurements drive value.
3. Delivering Context At Scale: Out-of-the-box LLM’s can generate language, but struggle with industry-specific context. Meltwater has introduced domain-specific context layers that improve accuracy, reduce irrelevant outputs, and make insights more meaningful for PR and communications work.
4. Demystifying Vectorisation: I’ll clarify what vector search means in plain English, and why it allows us to move past the limitations of Boolean logic, enabling more flexible and intuitive information discovery.
5. Insights Where You Need Them: By integrating with tools like Microsoft Teams, Meltwater is making sure that insights are available wherever you need them to take action, not just in a dashboard.

09:35 – 10:05 – Why AI Adaption Fails Without Cultural Change: A Case Study From With
Debbie Zaman, With & Stephen Waddington, Wadds Co

Buying AI tools is easy. Embedding them into your agency culture is not.
In this candid case study, Debbie Zaman and Stephen Waddington will share their experience co-creating and delivering a six-month AI integration programme at With, an international B2B public relations and digital marketing agency. They discovered that the real challenge wasn’t selecting the right tools or training the team, but building a culture that was ready to adopt, experiment with, and evolve using AI. This session explores why cultural transformation, rather than technical rollout, is the most decisive factor in determining whether AI becomes a competitive advantage.
1. Mindset before method: Growth mindset must come before training. Teams need psychological safety to embrace change.
2. Leadership sets the tone: Senior leaders must actively model curiosity, allocate resources and signal commitment to change.
3. Psychological safety supports innovation: Teams need space to fail fast and learn. With enabled this through agency-wide listening exercises, AI governance and peer-level AI guardians.
4. Embed AI into everyday practice: A four-month training programme aligned to With’s competencies helped embed AI into real work and client delivery.
5. Stakeholder communication: With developed a governance framework and communicate AI use clearly, and offering opt-outs for sensitive applications to build trust.

10:05 – 10:35 – Seeing Around Corners: Harnessing GAI For Strategic Communications
Kate Lavail & Nicola Johns, Lexis Nexis

The next reputational challenge your organization probably won’t start in the news. The advent of AI has acutely focused on the fact that these sources of information are really best used as outcome measures, or lagging indicators, of the work that needs to be done. By the time a story hits the news or TikTok, communications professionals must take a reactive stance.
Strategic communicators are expected to anticipate and prepare for risks, connect early signals to business outcomes, providing leaders with foresight, not just coverage reports. The most valuable data for communicators now isn’t always what we think of as ‘communications data.’ Harnessing AI to integrate data relevant across the business, including and beyond traditional communications helps communicators identify emerging issues earlier, understand them more deeply and respond with greater confidence.
Key Takeaways:

10:35 – 11:10 – Agency Panel
James Crawford, PR Agency One, Matt Oakley, Hotwire, Giuseppe Polimeno, Ketchum; Michael Maybury, Burson

Moderator, Johna Burke, AMEC

11:10 – 11:30 – NETWORKING BREAK

11:30 – 11:45 – From Bloat To Brilliance: What The Salesforce/Klarna Case Teaches The Media Intelligence Industry
Thomas Netousek, eMedia Monitor

When Klarna publicly walked away from Salesforce and over 1,200 SaaS tools, it wasn’t just a cost-cutting move it was a wake-up call for all data-driven platforms. This session unpacks the Klarna Salesforce fallout and reveals what it teaches the media intelligence industry in the AI era. Learn how to evolve from being just another dashboard to becoming indispensable infrastructure in your clients knowledge ecosystem.

11:45 – 12:15 – The Answer Is Changing: How Brands Are Adapting To AI Search
Josh Blyskal, Profound & Jonny Bentwood, Golin

  • The numbers behind the change
  • How much has GenAI disrupted the customer journey
  • How does AI search actually work?
  • The data shifts in GenAI
  • What are the key factors that influence GenAI visibility
  • What can brands to optimise their approach to be the First Answer
  • Examples of how brands are leading
  • Call to action – what is the one thing that brands need to do now

12:15 – 12:30 – Opening the black box: an Australian pilot in Generative Citation Analysis
Amrita Sidhu, Medianet

Key session takeaways for attendees:

  • A framework for the black box: Learn about Medianet’s methodology for brand measurement and analysis in unpredictable LLM environments.

  • Unpacking the variability of LLM outputs:  Discover how we analysed citations informing LLM responses to understand the variety of factors that influence a brand’s LLM visibility.
  • The next frontier – Your LLM reputation  See how we use our award winning measurement framework to unpack the impact of LLM responses on your brand’s reputation – and that of your competitors.

The good, the bad and the ugly: Learn from our success and our failures as we developed the pilot concept.

12:30 – 12:45 – Generative Pulse: A New Framework for AI-Driven PR Success
Raina Lazarova, Muck Rack

Generative AI is transforming how people search for and evaluate information. Google’s market share recently fell below 90 percent for the first time in decades, a small shift with major implications. As audiences turn to large language models for answers, understanding your organization’s visibility in AI-generated content has never been more important.

In this session, Raina Lazarova, VP of Insights at Muck Rack, will introduce Generative Pulse, Muck Rack’s new tool that helps communicators measure and influence how their brands appear in AI-driven responses. She’ll share how leading teams are using these insights to shape communication strategies, strengthen credibility, and report outcomes in ways that resonate with executives.

• Understand how GEO links AI visibility metrics to tangible business impact

• Discover how communicators are leveraging AI insights to build credibility and shape strategy

• Recognize why GEO is emerging as a trusted, C-suite-ready measure of success

12:45 – 13:00 – RIP Vanity Metrics: A Journey To Valid Scores With AI And A Lot Of Data
Yolina Petrova, Identrics

A Case study of how Identrics and Medianet replaced the outdated AVE metrics with the R.E.A.L. Impact Score – an innovative and automated workflow powered by AI that quantifies media impact using Reach, Engagement, and Authority. The case study will demonstrate how specialized scoring models, real-time data pipelines, custom author authority modeling, and human-AI collaboration were used to deliver scalable, ethical, and transparent insights – giving PR teams a concrete path to smarter, faster media evaluation.

13:00 – 13:20 – Don’t Just Build Agents, Build Teammates
Cien Solon, Launch Lemonade

Many teams build AI agents because it seems cutting-edge, but real value comes from treating AI as a teammate that solves actual problems.
1. Start with the problem your team faces, not the technology: Identify where your team struggles or wastes time. Focus on building an AI teammate to solve that real need.
2. Make your AI teammate helpful, not just efficient: Design agents to support your team in everyday work. They should answer questions, give insights, and make it easier to collaborate.
3. Build and test quickly, don’t wait for perfection: Use no-code tools to create a first version. Share it with your team, see how they use it, and make changes based on their feedback.
4. Keep asking for feedback and keep improving: Treat your AI teammate like a new team member. Ask what works, what does not, and use that to improve how it helps everyone.
5. Be open about what the AI can do: Let your team know what the AI is good at and where it has limits. This helps people trust it and use it more confidently.

13:20 – 14:15 – NETWORKING LUNCH

14:15 – 14:40 – Lessons Learned: Getting & Staying On Track With AI Implementation
Maya Koleva, Commetric

Working with clients with very specific and unique needs, pain points and complex questions, Commetric’s Director of Research & Insights Maya Koleva often brings in some real horror story scenarios that Commetric’s AI and machine learning team needs to tackle. In this session, Maya will share learnings along the way of building narrow-use AI and LLM-driven applications for PR and comms measurement and research tasks.
Key takeaways:

  • Why it is worth it to focus on narrow use applications for specific measurement and research tasks
  • Which PR measurement pain points are currently tackled best with LLMs
  • Where LLMs cannot help and why
  • What does mis- and disinformation research have in common with PR effectiveness measurement
  • What an end-to-end agentic workflow can look like

14:40 – 15:05 – AI And Reputation
Anna Salter, Onclusive & Darryl Sparey, Hard Numbers

How much of what ChatGPT and other Large Language models says about the world’s largest companies is sourced from earned media.
What role do other information sources, such as company websites, blogs and owned media play in shaping the views expressed by Large Language Models (LLMs).
What do PR and communications professionals need to know about the emerging field of Generative Engine Optimisation or GEO and how can PR and communication professionals future-proof themselves for a world of AI Search.

15:05 – 15:30 – From Manual To Machine: Real-World Lessons From Implementing LLM-Driven Media
Martin Schulze, UNICEPTA

Recognize both the strengths and limitations of a GenAI-driven analytics engine.
– Realize that reliable outcomes require more than simply feeding datasets into off-the-shelf LLM solutions (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.).
– Identify the key prompt parameters and understand why disciplined prompt management is essential for high-quality results.
– Understand the need to prepare for (ongoing) Change Management

15:30 – 16:00 – NETWORKING BREAK

16:00 – 17:00 – Measuring What Matters: AI, Agentic Tools, and the Next 6 Months of Comms Analytics
Andrew Bruce Smith

17:00 – 18:30 –  Closing Remarks & Post-event Networking Drinks